She loves history, she loves to read, she loves listening to stories and she loves telling stories. Thirty-three-year-old Carolina Quiroga Hurtado found these passions as a child, and because of her mother's ability to tell humorous stories as a school teacher, she found her love of storytelling.

"It is very easy for me because I've been reading all my life and I've been retelling things all my life too," Quiroga said. "I've been interested in storytelling because I just love stories. It's not like I'm a gossip person but I do like to hear stories."

A native of Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia, where she spent the first 30 years of her life, she came to the United States to become a professional storyteller. She chose to move to America and pursue a career in storytelling despite her family and friends thinking she was crazy for not sticking with her practical job as a graphic designer, which she already knew would offer a promotion in the near future.

The most important decisions in life are often the ones that reveal themselves when you least expect. For Dr. Joyce Troxler the combination of a newly discovered interest and a family medical concern led her to medical school. That decision led her back to the mountains of East Tennessee, where she grew up.

The Jonesborough, Tenn. native was “rambling” and trying to decide what she wanted to do with her life. After completing her undergraduate degree at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, she was working with the New Mexico State Office of Archeology when she shared a revelation with her father.

“I had thought about doing forensic pathology and my dad was like, ‘You know, this means you should go to medical school,’” Troxler said.

It’s a humid Sunday morning. The streets of Johnson City are unusually busy for this time of the day. A local marathon is taking place and police officers are directing traffic at each intersection. Exhausted-looking participants jog by a parking lot on the fringe of ETSU’s campus where a group of people have begun to gather. One by one, cars exit the stagnant line of traffic, pass through the shadow of the looming Mini Dome and make their way to the parking lot.

One of the last people to arrive steps out of her SUV and removes her bicycle from the back. As she does this, several other riders carve wide arcs around the parking lot, warming up for the ride while they wait. The woman, sporting a white windbreaker, blue shades and full riding gear, strolls up to the main group of riders, which has now gathered near the back of the parking lot. She greets the others with a familiar smile. After a minute or two of friendly conversation, the riders mount their bikes and she is off with a quick wave.

The first time Santiago Funes visited a doctor in his 25 years as a migrant farm worker was after he suffered a heart attack and had to undergo open-heart surgery at the Johnson City Medical Center. Funes said he does not know what caused his heart attack, and the reason he had never visited a doctor was because he did not have transportation.

Before his surgery, Funes did not have any kind of medical record, and the medical record he now has in East Tennessee will remain there while he travels back home to Mexico. Since Funes will not have his medical record, any doctor he sees in the future will have a hard time learning his medical history.

Eva Becerra and her husband, Raul Rendon, have followed their dream. They are the owners of Doña Eva Meat Market & Mexican Deli in Johnson City.

On a quiet Tuesday afternoon, Becerra, Rendon and one or two assistants work in the kitchen preparing Mexican dishes of all sorts, but mostly tamales. The front door chimes once or twice as customers arrive. They swiftly pick up their order and head on their way, Eva returning to the kitchen once again.

Rendon mans the kitchen and occasionally cracks a joke in Spanish, drawing the smiles and laughs of those working around him. This is what life looks like for them. This is what the American Dream looks like for many like Becerra and Rendon. This is what they aim for.

It hasn’t always been this way. They, like everyone else in life, have had to adjust and sometimes make the best of their situation, but they persevered and now have much to show for it.